Models of Housing Choice Behavior and Preference Revelation Based on a Search Process.

This dissertation examines the effects of search costs on the housing choices of households. It presents a theoretical model of housing choice behavior and an empirical model of preference revelation which are based on a housing search process and its outcome. The approach departs from previous studies of housing dem and which assumed that the housing consumption choices of households satisfied neoclassical conditions for utility maximization. Instead, it assumes that housing choices reflect satisficing behavior by households given imperfect housing market information. The theoretical model represents the process of finding an acceptable dwelling unit as a series of three related tasks: (1)the task of screening out less desirable dwelling units prior to searching, (2)the task of searching among the remaining dwelling units to gather information about the prices and attributes of specific dwelling units, and (3)the task of selecting a dwelling unit from among those that were examined. Households are assumed either to have no information for screening or limited information that allows dwelling units to be screened on the basis of their price or submarket identity. It is further assumed that every household searches r and omly among dwelling units that were not eliminated by screening until it finds a dwelling unit whose attribute bundle is contained in its "acceptance set" of attribute bundles. The acceptance set is determined so as to maximize the expected utility corresponding to the outcome of the search process. When search is costly, a household will accept a dwelling unit whose attribute bundle is less satisfactory than the one it would dem and in the absence of search costs because, by accepting a less satisfactory attribute bundle, the household can decrease its expected search effort and increase its expected utility. The acceptance set for each household depends on the frequency distribution of attribute bundles in the market, the cost of a search, and the household's screening ability. Search costs can cause the expected housing consumption choices of households to deviate from their desired housing consumption choices. The distorting effect of search costs is more pronounced for households seeking uncommmon attribute bundles. If households can screen dwelling units on the basis of price, then the distorting effect of search costs is more pronounced for individual housing attributes than for the total housing expenditure. Given the distorting effect of search costs, existing empirical models for estimating housing dem and that assume as a basis for preference revelation that every household occupies a dwelling unit that closely satisfies its dem and s given market prices may reveal distorted housing preferences. This concern has prompted the development of an alternative empirical model based on the search process. The alternative model assumes as a basis for preference revelation that every housing searcher chooses the dwelling unit that provides the greatest utility given prices from among those examined during its search process. Thus the approach differs from other approaches by assuming that the housing choice of every searcher is only revealed preferred to other dwelling units examined during its search process and not to all other dwelling units in the market. The formulation of the empirical model is based on the conditional logit model of population choice behavior as described by McFadden. The model has been shown to have desirable asymptotic properties including asymptotic efficiency and normality.Ph.D.Economic theoryUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/158264/1/8116248.pd

Racial/Ethnic Perceptions from Hispanic Names: Selecting Names to Test for Discrimination

Researchers increasingly use correspondence audit studies to study racial/ethnic discrimination in employment, housing, and other domains. Although this method provides strong causal evidence of racial/ethnic discrimination, these claims depend on the signal being clearly conveyed through names. Few studies have pretested individual racial and ethnic perceptions of the names used to examine discrimination. I conduct a survey experiment that asks respondents to identify the race or ethnicity they associate with a series of names. I provide respondents with combinations of Hispanic and Anglo first and last names. Hispanic first names paired with Anglo last names are least likely to be recognized as Hispanic, while all versions of Hispanic first and last names are highly recognized (90%+). The results suggest that (1) researchers must use caution when trying to signal Hispanic ethnicity in experiments and (2) prior findings from correspondence audits may be biased from poor signals